How More Than 100 Strangers Came Together to Launch a Viral Bernie Sanders Site

In a story that's quintessentially Bernie Sanders, a group of strangers from across the Internet has come together to build an exhaustive new site about the Democratic presidential candidate, without pay, for a cause they believe in. The site is called FeelTheBern.org, named after the unofficial slogan that has caught fire among his supporters. Like the candidate himself, the website has gone viral seemingly overnight. Since launching two days ago, it has been shared over 31,000 times on Facebook and 1,600 times on Twitter, according to stats on the homepage. Site founder Daniela Perdomo, co-founder and CEO of Brooklyn tech start-up goTenna, says the site is "approaching a million pageviews." And for good reason: the site covers the Vermont senator's stances on 18 issues, contextualized with accessible explainers, videos, and graphics. It's arguably one of the most comprehensive candidate websites out there.

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The site came together in 32 days, starting with a post from Perdomo, published in a Sanders subreddit July 9. Perdomo, 30, who has followed the senator's career for years, said she was frustrated by how media outlets first reported on his candidacy — as a long shot in relation to Hillary Clinton, or as an outlier in the race for his progressive views. She noticed, however, that the senator seemed to have a strong push on the Internet. "What was really cool to see was in spite of the media not really telling the Bernie Sanders story," she says, was that "people were still telling his story on social media — and that was very exciting to me."

Sanders has become a phenomenon in the past few weeks, now attracting tens of thousands people at his rallies. He calls for tuition-free public universities and refuses campaign money from billionaires and super PACs. He has a record consistent with his current views, voting against the Defense of Marriage Act, the Iraq war, and the Patriot Act. Sanders has "consistently voted for what he believes in and that's what has permitted him to remain consistent," Perdomo says. "He's never been beholden to big money empires, so that's made it relatively easy for him to just vote for how he feels, even if it's been unpopular opinion. So I was really excited about him!"

"But," she admits, "I didn't think he had much of a shot." Before he announced his candidacy, few were aware of the candidate's record or his grassroots campaign. The lack of information around his views frustrated Perdomo, prompting her to reach out to those on the Internet who were just as passionate about Sanders as she has been. Word of the mission traveled through social media, attracting around 125 people who volunteered time to handle research, writing, design, SEO, and web development. The site launched August 12.

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The volunteer base was incredibly diverse. "To be honest with you, I would say everyone was pretty different, and that's what was so inspiring," Perdomo says, noting that among them was an endocrinologist, a retired obstetrician, a rabbi, teachers, a nurse, and even two children, ages 11 and 14, who wrote the first draft of the children page.

Perhaps the most surprising segment was the Republicans. "We had a lot of people who up until now have only voted Republican, who are really moved by the campaign and on the issues that he cares about," Perdomo says, including a former staffer for Mitt Romney's 2012 campaign. Perdomo sees this as evidence that Sanders is "hitting exactly the people that Democrats have never been able to pull over to their side."

The Sanders campaign is "aware of our project" and "they're supportive of it," Perdomo says, but emphasizes that the site "has no official relationship with the candidate." FeelTheBern.org will stay up until the election and will be updated throughout to reflect any new legislation Sanders supports, as well as any news and policy updates. Perdomo is also hoping to offer translation "ideally at least in Spanish."

"We have all these resources now ... and different kinds of people who are willing to really make stuff happen," she says. "We're just going to have to continue leveraging that, 'cause I think we've still got 15 months till the election! There's still so much to do."